Money Management Software.

getmore4less

The decades of development meant there was nothing new to add to MSMoney.

It models money really well and has loads of budgeting, tracking, forecast, reporting features.

Missing is the integration into mobile tech but if you have a good budget you don't need that.

There is a link around to the UK sunset edition.


The key with financial control is planning where every penny goes and keeping to that plan or adjustments if you got it wrong.

The level of detail is up to the individual on how many categories they want to have.

For many the starting point is a guess because they don't know where it all goes.
Tracking(spending diary) help fine tune the guesses.

MSMoney has great report options to do the analysis.

debtfreeforlife

I use clearcheckbook and have for years now - I use it alongside an annual spreadsheet where I plan my budget down to the penny. CC is great for tracking daily spends against a budget. You can set the budget to reset weekly or monthly so works for those paid weekly. I like that you can also have it "roll over" for some budget categories in case you under or overspend. Alongside that you can use the envelopes budgeting method, look at reports for expenditure, forecast future balances, set and track savings goals, track bills, set recurring payments, use the debt snowball method etc. I've found it hugely helpful over the years to the extent that I pay the £5 per month premium version, but I used the free version for years and it is completely adequate.


I can't do screenshots right now but let me know if you're interested and I will try and take one.



https://www.clearcheckbook.com/

little_green

may check out some of the above mentioned.
currently I use google sheets which I can access on any device so it's great for ease of adding in spends. I track every spend.
I've set it up now with formulas ets in the right cells so that everything I input auto generates onto a chart so it's easier to consume at a glance.
eg. I can see 20% of this months spend has been on clothes.
I've tried a few money apps but I found with them I could only have the data generating one chart, whereas on my spreadsheet I can have it projecting onto various.
for example, i have bills, essential spends & non essential spends but also sub categories within those. In my own sheet I have 2 separate charts one showing % of the categories & another which shows % spends of the sub cats.
On money apps I find that you are limited to the number of cats & sub cats you can have, & as I said above it won't display a chart for both. (or perhaps i'm doing something wrong?)

System

I still have my original copy of Microsoft Money from years back (1990s, probably). I didn't realise it still works so must fish it out from the loft and give it a go. I do rather miss it and have been trying to do my household accounting and budgeting with Excel which I find hard work.

I have set up loads of different spreadsheets to find one which actually works for me but not being particularly au fait with excel none of them really do the trick.

There seem to be more apps than actual "programmes" online. I don't want to use an app as I am not brilliant with touch screens as I find them too small when I am dealing with numbers (words are OK as they auto-correct!)... I shall be interested to see what other options people can suggest.

little_green

Mrs_Arthur_Crown wrote: »

I still have my original copy of Microsoft Money from years back (1990s, probably). I didn't realise it still works so must fish it out from the loft and give it a go. I do rather miss it and have been trying to do my household accounting and budgeting with Excel which I find hard work.

I have set up loads of different spreadsheets to find one which actually works for me but not being particularly au fait with excel none of them really do the trick.

There seem to be more apps than actual "programmes" online. I don't want to use an app as I am not brilliant with touch screens as I find them too small when I am dealing with numbers (words are OK as they auto-correct!)... I shall be interested to see what other options people can suggest.

completely agree about there appearing to be ore apps than actual programmes. I don't mind having something to access to track spending when out & about but for actually analyzing my spending habits I prefer to do this on the big screen.

Terry98

Mrs_Arthur_Crown wrote: »

I still have my original copy of Microsoft Money from years back (1990s, probably). I didn't realise it still works so must fish it out from the loft and give it a go.

It should work although Microsoft stopped supplying links to track investment prices when they stopped providing support for it in the mid '00's. You can still input the prices manually so it's no big deal for me.

I have got 30 years of data on my version of Money and I would be lost without it!

The link for the download of Money above is the USA version although there is a link somewhere on the net for the final version free uk version that I am using (Money2005-UK-QFE2)

cloud_dog

Terry98 wrote: »

It should work although Microsoft stopped supplying links to track investment prices when they stopped providing support for it in the mid '00's. You can still input the prices manually so it's no big deal for me.

For those running MS Money who wish to continue with bulk/auto-updating of investment prices there is Gaier Software that facilitates this. I believe a number of MSErs with MS Money utilise this.

I hold a copy of the most recent UK version (2005) for anyone who is interested.

JustAnotherSaver

Do any of you input 100% of your spends in to MS Money? I'm assuming this can be done. If so then how do you do it?


There's things such as direct debits which will be pretty standard but then you're out and about, you do a weekly shop which will come to whatever it does. You're out with a friend and fancy going for a drink, a brew and a cake maybe - impulse purchasing.


How much of your spending do you guys actually log?


Only asking this as i'm genuinely curious what we spend, totally. I've recently ran a tally of 3 months supermarket spending which ended up with some surprising results on how much we spend where we actually don't need to ... and i know that in amongst these 3 months there's been an unknown number of receipts that weren't taken, were thrown out, lost or whatever so the numbers i have will only be a close guide and nothing exact.


Takeaways is another i haven't tracked. We don't have nearly as many as we used to but i'm just talking about literally everything - i wonder how much we spend and what areas we spend it


and from that i wonder how closely you guys actually track your spends using these kinds of software?

Willing2Learn

JustAnotherSaver wrote: »

Do any of you input 100% of your spends in to MS Money? I'm assuming this can be done. If so then how do you do it?

When I was using MS Money, I would literally keep all receipts. Whether it was a trip to Costa Coffee or a newspaper from the corner shop, I would get a receipt. All the receipts can be entered at the end of the day. Then you get a real picture of where all the unnecessary spending goes.

Even now, although I don't use MS Money any more (having migrated to YNAB in 2011), I still get a receipt for everything or alternatively make a payment by card so that my software gets updated according to statements.
Another way - is to keep a spending diary, which you could update while out an about and then transfer to MS Money when you get home.

DireEmblem

Have you thought of trying MoneyDashboard?

It doesn't have the ability to move your funds around, but once you link it to your different bank accounts, it will analyse your spending, and you can create trackers and projections?

https://share.moneydashboard.com/LTVZKKN3

With the link above you also get 10 member shares, which might be worth something down the line if they IPO.

I used it for example to see that I was paying 1500-2000 a year just eating out for lunch at work, and now bring in my own food for less than half of that, and throw the difference into my pension. I see if as sort of a pay rise for managing my cash better

It also helped to highlight trends in my spending throughout the year, so I could budget better.